Sunday, August 28, 2016

Ilan Pappe destroys BDS

"Historian" Ilan Pappe has never been one to let history stand in the way of "narrative"

There is no historian in the world who is objective. I am not as interested in what happened as in how people see what's happened. ("An Interview of Ilan Pappé," Baudouin Loos, Le Soir [Bruxelles],Nov. 29, 1999)

I admit that my ideology influences my historical writings...(Ibid)

Indeed the struggle is about ideology, not about facts. Who knows what facts are? We try to convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truthseekers. (Ibid)

The debate between us is on one level between historians who believe they are purely objective reconstructers of the past, like [Benny] Morris, and those who claim that they are subjective human beings striving to tell their own version of the past, like myself. (“Benny Morris’s Lies About My Book,” Ilan Pappé, Response to Morris’ critique of Pappé’s book, “A History of Palestine” published in the New Republic, March 22, 2004, History News Network, April 5, 2004)

[Historical] Narratives... when written by historians involved deeply in the subject matter they write about, such as in the case of Israeli historians who write about the Palestine conflict, is motivated also... by a deep involvement and a wish to make a point. This point is called ideology or politics. (Ibid)

Yes, I use Palestinian sources for the Intifada: they seem to me to be more reliable, I admit. (Ibid)

In a talk at Westminster University, earlier this year, David Collier at "Beyond the Great Divide". has caught Pappe in a rare moment of candor, admitting that the genesis of the call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions was not "Palestinian civil society"

Illan Pappe talks about BDS at every single lecture. This is the type of thing he says.

“It (BDS) began as a call from within the civil society under occupation, endorsed by other Palestinian groups, and translated into individual and collective actions worldwide.”

Do not underestimate the importance of this claim. The call has to come from within. It is of VITAL significance. In an event at the University of Kent, I was told by a speaker from War on Want, that boycotting was only legitimate because “the Palestinians had asked us to”. Put aside all the other reasons to reject the boycott, as the major casualties from any such boycott would be weaker members of Palestinian society, for any humanitarian organisation to align with it, they would have to be absolutely convinced the call was genuine.

We now know it wasn’t.

Ilan Pappe destroys BDS

Many people have long surmised that external activists told several groups of Palestinians what they needed. Then civil groups, some only made up of a couple of members, effectively sided with Hamas. They signed on the dotted line and BDS was born. The tail effectively wagging the dog. Whilst this has long been assumed, the evidence did not exist. Now it does. Watch the video. Bookmark it.